Former bank manager charged with fraud, theft in case of missing $63,000

Written by Marty Randall

Wednesday, 02 October 2013 00:00

A woman formerly employed as a manager of the Centra Credit Union branch at Wal-Mart in Scottsburg has entered a not guilty plea to ten felonies filed against her.

Renea Dawn White, 24, Scottsburg, was the focus of a seven-month-long investigation by the Indiana State Police. She allegedly embezzeled $63,000 while employed by Centra.

According to the probable cause affidavit prepared by Detective Tim Denby of the ISP’s Sellersburg post, a report was filed with the Scottsburg Police Department in late January of this year regarding missing money. White, who had left the credit union by that time, was named as the suspect.

Records provided to the ISP detective revealed the nature of the thefts of money from clients’ accounts. Her transactions, however, were traceable through her cashier number as well as on-line activity in her account.

“First, she would take money from her drawer and deposit it (in another person’s account) fraudulently claiming this cash to be a refund for bank fees. She would then transfer these fees from (the other person’s) account to hers through on-line banking,” the affidavit explained. White was also allegedly transferring money out of other customers’ accounts, sometimes first depositing money as more alleged bank fees refunds. In other cases, she reportedly just transferred money. All of the funds went through another person’s account and then into hers, the affidavit stated.

White was confronted on January 18 by bank officials about the transfers. The affidavit stated that White “...admitted...she had run the scheme so many times that she couldn’t put a number on it.” She also allegedly admitted to taking $5,000 to make a house payment.

White reportedly offered a written admission to the credit union and later e-mailed to apologize for the thefts. She asked that charges not be pressed.

According to court documents, at least 93 false or fraudulent transactions occurred, totaling over $60,000. Det. Denby said he showed that figure to White during an interview and “...she did not dispute or deny this figure.” White appeared before Judge Ruger Duvall in Scott Circuit Court on Friday, September 27, with her attorney. She entered a plea of not guilty to the five Class C felony counts of fraud on a financial institution and five Class D felony counts of theft. Judge Duvall originally set bail at $50,000 corporte surety bond/10% cash. However, he allowed that amount to be lowered to $35,000/10% cash. White filed a $3,500 cash bond the same day and was released to await her jury trial date of February 25. All affected customers’ accounts have been adjusted and satisfied, the ISP noted.